THEORY OF MIND Penny Tok, PhD Born in Singapore Population: 5.2 million Land size: 704 km2 Moved to New Zealand Population: 4.4 million Land size: 268 260 km2 About me • www.autismsupportsite.wordpress.com • Email: drpennytok@gmail.com • Room: 2.53 but meetings by appointment only Today • Course outline • Assignments and tests • Theory of Mind (ToM)- what is it • Why do we need it? • Theories on ToM Title • Lectures followed by seminars 1.5 hours in all • 6.00 – 7.30pm every Thursday • Participation in class- expected to contribute Course Outline Assessment Guide & CriteriaAssignments Assignment type Marks % of total course marks TWO (2) in-class tests (Short answer questions) 20 marks 20 marks 40% (20% each) ONE (1) 20 minute group seminar presentation 20 marks 20% ONE (1) 1,500 word essay based on your presentation topic 20 marks 30% Participation in ONE(1) research experiment on ToM plus a 500 word summary of the experience 10% (5% for completing it and 5% for report) OR a 2,000 word essay on experimental procedures on testing Theory of Mind 10% Short answer questions such as: • Define Theory of Mind and give THREE (3) examples on how it affects our daily lives (8 marks) • Describe TWO (2) theories of Theory of Mind (6 marks) • At what age are children considered to have effectively developed a Theory of Mind and why? (6 marks) Tests Course Outline First presentation starts in week 5, so you should have formed your group by Week 3. Make sure you tell me your group members so that we can arrange the presentation dates. You can: 1. Form your own groups (4 per group) and inform me 2. I will form them for you by drawing lots Presentations Final assignment option 30 minute experiment + 500 word reflection summary OR 2000 word essay on testing ToM Experiment details A number of experiments available: • All take approximately 30 minutes • Will be conducted at MU-Gorkého Street • You will get a note from the experimenter confirming your participation and you MUST submit this form together with your 500 word personal reflection. • 2000 word essay on testing ToM Alternative assignment My current research projects: 1. Study on ToM in children in Brno- clinical 2. Study on ToM in young adults in Brno I am looking for: Research assistants to help with: 1. Data collection: in children’s homes (for Autism participants) 2. Data collection at schools: for typically developing children Other roles: 1. To participate as well as help recruit participants for the study Benefits for you: 1. Gain practical research experience (field work and experimental design) 2. Learn about working with children with autism 3. Get a letter from me confirming your participation 4. All transport will be reimbursed (for data collection outside MU) • Its an everyday or folk psychology • Seeing other people and ourselves in terms of mental states • Understanding that other people have thoughts, emotions, beliefs and preferences that are separate from our own. What is ToM? Why is ToM important? Give daily examples of when ToM is used and what happens if we do not have ToM? 1) Helps us to comprehend and explain others actions 2) Helps us to predict others behaviour 3) Manipulate others behaviour 1) George likes to go to the gym in the morning, but he forgot it was closed on Mondays, so when he got there he just went straight to work. 2) George usually goes to the gym in the morning but when he got there today it was closed, so he just went straight to work. How do we do it? Mental state understanding requires realising that such states may reflect reality and may manifest in overt behaviour but are nonetheless internal and mental and thus distinct from real-world events, situations or behaviours. Wellman, Cross & Watson, 2001 , p. 655 Need to distinguish between: Attribution of desires, perceptions & emotions Behavioural sensitivity to the associated physical cues (body motion, eye gaze etc.) What affects our development of ToM? Genetic influences - Age - IQ - Language abilities Environmental - Past experiences - Family size (siblings) a. Conceptual Change account (Gopnik & Wellman, 1994, Wellman, 1990) b. Theory of Mind Mechanism (Leslie, 1987, 1994) Theories of ToM- Theory Theory Emphasises that mental states are theoretical constructs that can be used in order to generate expectations about how people will act in a given situation. Conceptual change account Assumptions: 1.Even infants are presumed to have some innate understanding that behaviours are motivated by internal mental states. 2.Children change through a series of qualitatively different understandings of how mental states affect behaviour 3.Reaches an adult-like state of understanding at about ages 3-4 4.Domain general What makes it change from a rudimentary form in infancy to a complex understanding in later life? Similar to how scientists change their theories based on empirical evidence, children adapt their ‘theories’ based on their experiences and knowledge. Children as little scientists. (Gopnik & Meltzoff, 1996) Support for conceptual change Two lines of evidence : 1. Difference between 3 year old understanding and a 5 year old. Qualitative changes in ToM understanding support the idea of children going through different phases of understanding how mental states relate to the world 2nd piece of evidence : Individual experiential factors seem to affect ToM developmentsuch as ‘motherese’, number of siblings and social-economic factors The same two points can be used as evidence for alternative theories of ToM development! Theory of Mind Mechanism Domain specific capacity that allows meta-representation of mental subserved by a specific cognitive mechanism: TOMM (Leslie, 1987, 1994) Part of the core architecture of the human brain specialised for learning about mental states Concepts are introduced into our system by a mechanism (like how colour concepts are introduced by mechanisms of colour vision). Aim of the ToM mechanism is to:  Permit  Promote  Direct attention To these mental states in order to learn about them. The outputs of ToMM are descriptions of psychological states in the form of metarepresentations or M-representations, that is, agent-centered descriptions of behaviour. Assumptions 1 • Presence of a powerful representational system for representing beliefs and desires. Made possible by ToMM 2 • Successful reasoning recruits inhibitory selection process (SP) Between possible others • True belief default3 Supporting evidence Saxe, et al. (2004): distinct brain regions selectively engaged when people reason about the contents of other’s beliefs. - ToM : Domain specific processing machinery - Two stages of development result from the appearance of two distinct mechanisms rather than from the gradual enrichment of a single mechanism Simulation Theory • Denies that we come to understand others through deployment of a theory • Instead we use our OWN mind to understand others • Rejects theoretical inference Basic tenet: put yourself in someone else’s shoes and you will be able to simulate them as well as predict and explain their behaviour Start thinking about… • Forming your groups and choosing a topic • Which assignment you want to doexperiments or essay Read the readings for next week: • Liu, D., Wellman, H. M., Tardif, T., & Sabbagh, M. A. (2008). Theory of mind development in Chinese children: a metaanalysis of false-belief understanding across cultures and languages. Developmental psychology, 44(2), 523-31. • Onishi, K. H., & Baillargeon, R. (2005). Do 15-month-old infants understand false beliefs? Science (New York, N.Y.), 308(5719), 255-8. • Perner, J., & Ruffman, T. (2005). Infants ’ Insight into the Mind : Science, 308(5719), 214-216.